Tafseer/explanation of Quran

A divinely sent book by God is supposed to be perfect and free of errors. Is it logical to assume that this Book can be explained by other books which are written by man? in other words, other books which are written by man and therefore will certainly have errors in them, can they explain a divinely sent perfect Book?

An attribute of the divinely sent Book is the Furqan i.e the Criteria between the truth and falsehood. If the criteria itself is dependent upon other explanations for understanding it, then logically it cannot be the criteria over the things which are explaining it.

Blessed is He who sent down the Furqan/Criterion to His servant, to be an admonition to all the worlds;-

The True sprit of an Ayat of Al-Quran will be that which does not conflct with the understanding/sprit of other Ayahs. So, if the understanding of an Ayat conflicts with the understanding of other Ayas of the Book, it would mean there exists a problem and more study is required towards its understanding.

And in this way We do explain the Ayahs/signs, so that they may say, “you taught (this)” and that We may make the matter clear to those who know.

The below Ayat informs about the Prophet’s method of giving sermon from the Quran for clarification of a certain topic, i.e the topic was explained from Ayahs from various Soorahs/chapters, not necessary in their original order in the Book. So when by this method the topic is clarified and if it were not according to the wishes of the people, they would say that the Messenger made this up.

O You who believe! Do not go beyond from before Allah and His messenger; but fear Allah, for Allah is He Who hears and knows all things.

Majority of the people are following conjectures which cannot be confirmed from Allah’s Book; there are volumes of books with stories which are believed to be religious; so Allah is warning don’t go beyond Allah and his messengers i.e don’t make your beliefs other than what Allah has revelaed and which is the Qaul/saying of the honorable Messenger; 69:40 (إِنَّهُ لَقَوْلُ رَسُولٍ كَرِيمٍ)

There is, in their stories, admonition for men endued with understanding. It is not an invented Hadith/narration, but a confirmation of what is between the hands,- a detailed explanation of all things, and a guide and a mercy to those who believe.

On the day of judgement the messenger shall be the witness on all the people, in order to testify what he delivered to people and what they have been attributing to him.

One day We shall raise from all Peoples a witness against them, from amongst themselves. and We shall bring you (the messenger) as a witness against these (your people). and We have sent down to you the Book explaining all things, a Guide, a Mercy, and Glad Tidings to Muslims.

And at that time the messenger will testify that alas my nation held the Quran as if like leaving it, which means that while paying lip service to Quran in essence they made the Quran ineffective by indulging in traditions and mixing traditions with Quran.

Do they just wait for its’ Taweel (explanation)? The day when the Taweel shall come, those who forgot it before, will say. “The messengers of our Lord did indeed come with the truth. Now, do we have any intercessor to intercede on our behalf? Or could we be sent back? Then we would behave differently from our behaviour in the past.” In fact they have put themselves in loss, and the things they invented will leave them in the lurch.

Shane Nazool:

Another concept being propagated is that of Shane Nazool (i.e the conditions of revelation). The concept is that we have to understand the causes of revelation of Quranic Ayahs i.e historic background, in order to understand why a certain verse was revealed, and its intentions.

However, We know that Qur’an is not a book restricted to time and space. It’s injunctions are applicable in all times and eras. To suggest that the Qur’an is in need of the historical tales dominant in certain time of history for its exegesis is to limit the Qur’an to just one particular era. It is tantamount to saying it as ‘Asateer ul Awaleen/tales of the past. Quran states that the Book is a reminder to all the nations (81:27) and “Guidance for all mankind” (2:185). These values do not change with the circumstances of time. The narrations in Quran are not tales of the past, but they teach principles, for present day solutions and are not meant for digging historical tales from outside sources.